This serenely beautiful book of pictures by Molly Malone Cook (1925–2005) and words by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Mary Oliver (with some by Cook, whom she always called M.) is a tribute to the world they shared for more than 40 years, befriending photographers and writers at Cook's pioneering VII Photographers Gallery and East End Bookshop in Provincetown, on Cape Cod. Among the four-dozen images are portraits of Jean Cocteau and W. Eugene Smith, Lorraine Hansberry and Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Motherwell and Norman Mailer, Walker Evans and Oliver herself, along with local denizens and remarkable still lifes. Oliver writes of M.'s work, the people they knew, and the places they visited or lived, capturing not only the vivifying qualities of her partner's work, but also how M. taught her "to see, with searching attention and compassion."

"The photographs Oliver has chosen reflect Cook's intuitive relationship with her subjects (even inanimate objects). The little girl on the stoop in New York City looks directly at the photographer, as does a kindly Robert Motherwell and a fierce, almost intimidating Walker Evans. Even though most of the photographs are dominated by a central person or object, there is a lot to look at in the margins, all part of the story. The stance of her subjects—reading a book, looking through a telescope—is always distinctive, creating the mood of the entire composition. The two photos of Oliver could have been taken only by someone who knew the subject well."—LATimes